We want to know what the future holds for us. As a Christian, there is a certainty in life because of what what God has does through His Son, Jesus Christ. John highlights that Jesus was God through His baptism and death, symbolised by the water and blood. As Christians, we can have the confidence that we will have eternal life with God and that He will hear and answer our prayers. We are reminded that all wrongdoing is sin, but it is Jesus Christ that keeps us safe from the evil one - we need to hand over our sinful life to Him. The Christian life is the real life we can have that focuses on Jesus Christ and not on the things that are temporary and do not offer eternal hope. Are you fully committed to Jesus Christ or to the things of this world?

We cannot truly love our neighbours if we do not have complete love for God. Growing in maturity as a Christian means we grow in confidence in Jesus. We need to live our life as we say we will and be honest in our walk with Jesus. If we want God's love to be in our life, we need to obey His commands. Our victory in this world is to love and have faith in Jesus - we don't have to wait to the end of our life for that - we can be victorious now because of what Jesus has done for us. Are we growing in our life as Christians by being confident, being honest, showing obedience and having victory in Jesus?

When we show God's love to others, it is proof that we are walking with Jesus and that we have fellowship with God. Love is the very being of the nature of God and if we are united to God through Jesus Christ, then we will share in His nature. God's ultimate love for us was the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross so that we could be saved and have eternal life with Him. Is your focus towards God in showing His love in words and actions to others?

The amazing reality, as Christians, is that we have Jesus living in us. We can't pretend to be a child of God, because how we live is a indication of whether God is truly in us. We need to acknowledge that God is greater than anything this world has to offer and when things are going well in our lives we need to recognise that this is from God and not from anything we have done. We need to learn to trust Jesus in all that we do and not rely on ourselves.

John's key message is to love God and to love others. There are 4 levels of relationship we can have with each other. (1) Murder, where someone is totally controlled by Satan to do such an evil act. (2) Hatred, where we walk in the darkness by not forgiving someone who may have done wrong by us. (3) Indifference, which is the total opposite of love by ignoring those who are in need. (4) Christian love, where we show self sacrificial love by giving up of ourselves everyday for the needs of others. Time is the thing most of us have little of and yet this is the greatest thing we can give of ourselves to others. Love is meeting the need of any person, at any time and at any cost.

All through his letter John has been drawing to contrasting groups of people. There is a group that walks in the light as Jesus is in the light and there is a group that lives in darkness. As we come to 1 John 3:10 we can see that these people are different because they belong to different families. John says they will either be children of God or children of the devil. We need to live in the light and be a part of the children of God.

We are living in the last hour. John makes that clear in this passage and says that we know it is so because of the prevalence of antichrists - those who seek to distort the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So how are we to ensure that we remain in the truth? We have already been anointed by God with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works in us to confirm the truth and does not add to or subtract from it by bringing His own new revelations. The gospel has not and will not change, and it brings with it the promise of eternal life. We are to remain in Jesus and not be lead astray by false teaching, that we might be confident and unashamed before Him when He returns.

What does it mean to be a disciple (a follower) of Jesus? John tells us that as a follower of Jesus we must show obedience to Him. Jesus had a vertical relationship with God the Father but He also had a horizontal relationship with others. If we want to walk with and live like Jesus, we need to show our love for God and show our obedience to Him. We also need to show our love for others. Are you living in the light by following Jesus and obeying Him?

The way we learn to overcome sin is to walk in the light. The message from John in this passage is that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. When we walk in the dark (a separate life from Jesus) our life will be a struggle, with no hope for our future. To walk in the light is to follow and obey Jesus and confess our sins. When we fellowship with Jesus, we see more easily our own shortcomings and sin. Confession of our sins keeps us walking in the light. If we don't do this, are we really walking in the light with Jesus?

How do we know that Jesus is the Word of Life? We often hear what the world says is certain, death and taxes. God says what is certain is that Jesus Christ is Lord. This passage confirms that Jesus was there from the beginning, He came as man on this earth and we can have eternal life in fellowship with Him and God. God wants us to live a life of certainty, one that is being with Jesus Christ. John 20:29 tells us that as Christians we are blessed because even though we have not physically seen Jesus, we have faith and believe in Him. Are you sure of the truth and certainty that God has for you?